like sands through the hour glass, i'm krystal ball. doomsday and a key fiscal cliff vote on course to collide. that can't be a good thing. or is it? i'm steve kornacki. grilled on the hill. top state department reps answer tough questions of the benghazi report. we have a former secretary of state saying none of it will lead to change. i'm s.e. cupp. i like red, white and blue. buy america. no one likes last-minute holiday shopping. i have a gift for the sports fan who has everything. will it be pink or blue presents under my family tree? it is not both.

i have an announcement. hit follow and come along for "the cycle." the mayans believe the world ends tonight. that's one way to end the fol follies of washington. the rivalry between president obama and speaker boehner is taking over d.c. rivalry, mayans, makes me think of basketball since the mayans invented the earliest form of basketball. >> no. >> it's a fact. >> it is thursday. of course i'm doing sports metaphors. what else did you expect? we start with the new york knicks and the nets. we'll get to d.c. too. so you know, really compromise in there. >> talks to the heartland, people, there. >> all right, guys. the last two times these teams met it was the nail bite we are fans not sure who would be ahead

at the final buzz. on wednesday, the latest, knick star anthony returned to the hardwood coming off a sprained left ankle giving the knicks a commanding lead in the second half as house speaker boehner is dominating fiscal talks throwing the plan "b" on the court or the morning after bill. thank you, s.e. for this. >> welcome. >> nice one for this. >> he's calling a house vote on it tonight. >> the president has called on the house again and again to pass a bill to protect 98% of the american people from a tax hike. today we'll do better than that. our bill protects 99.81% of the american people from an increase in taxes. it's permanent tax relief for individuals. >> but even if it works in the house, the dem-controlled senate said they won't call a vote on it. >> until republicans take up

this -- our bill in the house, one that's passed here, there's nothing to discuss. we are not taking up any of the things they're working on over there now. it's time for republicans to get serious. speaker boehner's plans are non-starters in the senate. >> so as we tick down to the final buzzer, will boehner or obama be on the winning team? we start with play by play on capitol hill. from nbc's luke russert who's washington wizards and my wizards, as well -- >> not doing very well. >> loving on the road. i know. >> crazier there, john boehner and carmelo anthony or -- >> i have nothing to defend myself with here. all right. luke, when's goiat's going on w vote tonight? >> the speaker's plan "b." it obviously is -- >> the morning after bill. >> yes. many jokes made around capitol hill about that. it's a bill to allow the tax

rates for those earning a million dollars and below to stay put. it has no future at all in the senate and president obama said he would veto it. they seem to be close to a deal over the weekend. specifically monday and then downhill. the answer really is, two answers to give you. the white house says that president obama was informed by republicans that there is no way that john boehner could get the votes for a bill he the speaker -- a deal he put forward with the president last weekend. republicans are saying that president obama will not move enough in terms of spending, that john boehner has gone right to the middle and said today i did my part. they have done nothing. it depends on who you want to believe. where all this ends up, though, krystal and guys, we are now going closer to the cliff as we all said. the senate's back here december 27th. most likely the house after christmas. this is more sort of to bolster

up john boehner's negotiating stance. he can look like to the real conservatives trying to do all that he can so at the end if there's a large deal, i fought to the bitter end and brought back the entitlement cuts. this took people by surprise. it didn't factor in to the optimism of earlier in the week. so, look. at the end of the day, we have a few options. we can obviously go off the cliff and nobody wants to do. they can have a big underlying deal or maybe they come to it after going off the cliff because the more international markets and u.s. markets say you have to do something but they're not talking so a lot going on with no discussions between the white house and the speaker's office. >> excellent. >> washington, d.c. at work. >> well, i do want to go off the cliff. not nobody. >> you're on tv and not the halls in congress here. you have much more of a voice there. you can have more of an opportunity to shape the

discussions. >> sometimes things work out the way they're supposed to. go, wiz. >> can you say that? >> we'll bring in dana mill bank. you heard from luke said there. what's going on in the republican caucus right now? we had all the stories of john boehner, how he had eric cantor backing him now, he has the caucus under control. they were chastened by the electoral results. now it looks like we're having a replay of 2011. the president gave pretty significant concessions here. i have to say social security benefit cuts are very hard for a lot of democrats, myself included, to swallow and yet it looks like boehner still can't get the caucus to come along. so, what's going on there within the republican caucus? >> well, krystal, i look at it this way. i don't know if you know this but yesterday the senate paused briefly to have the actors and producers of "lincoln" came in and a screening for that. if the house does the same, they might want parental guidance for their film because there's a lot

of bad behavior going on and it's not john boehner's fault. he can't control his caucus. doesn't mean he can't control the majority of caucus. it is not out of the question to suffer that humiliation and dressed it up with extra spending cuts and that sort of thing. he needs -- this isn't really about negotiation. this is about satisfying his caucus and it's why, you know, you see these fluctuations, the negotiations look good and then negotiations look bad. there's been an argument we need a really cruise right towards that fiscal cliff and maybe go over it until the republicans are able to give up on their tax demands because they'll be at a point where they can tell the constituents they had no other choice. >> look, the vote for speaker and vote for speaker is january

3rd. nobody said they'll challenge john boehner and no real expectation for that to happen but talked about how he's an unusually weaker speaker with the right, the tea party, the base of the party irks wa, wait them to sell him out. immediately and longer term, how much danger he's in of facing a coup and worrying about eric cantor or anybody else behind him. how much is that factors in to the thinking? >> people have worried about this in the past. i'm not hearing a lot of that right now. john boehner is weakest speaker until the next speaker having the same problem he has. there's no indication that eric cantor is anything but on board right now and the truth is there's a good reason for that. they realize this is a lousy job right now. >> terrible job. >> no way to govern the caucus. >> dana, our own chuck todd gaming the talks today, and he

said in "first read" that if they, obama and boehner, don't see each other today, brace yourselves for going over the cliff. do you think it's today or never? >> i don't know but what's this thing to get together and have tea? they could have a phone call. i mean, the real question is, are the staffs hammering something out here? i don't read a lot in to does he show up in the oval office. you want the guys to be talking but we know pretty much we all know what the agreement will have to look like. what it will look like eventually happening tomorrow or whether it happens after the markets tank early next year, we know how to get there so the two of them could work this out in about ten minutes once they decided to. >> dana, obama's got leverage, he is well over 50%, a lot of opinion polls. he's popular. people like the $250,000 limit. why's he going up to $400,000

and probably up to $500,000 later than that? should the left be boiling mad that obama is giving away so much of the store? >> some of them are boiling mad and that helps him to increase the leverage to make the case with john boehner but you know what? the president has a political advantage. few people doubt that he will benefit politically more than republicans. republicans will be blamed if we go over the cliff and something beyond political considerations and going back in to another recession, the entire economy sinks, there are some thing that is are larger than your approval rating an enthe poe ining and t. i think there's good faith to cut a deal. he's offered up concessions and pummeling the republicans, let's be fair, to try to give him the maximum amount of leverage. >> all right. thank you for your insights. >> thanks a lot. busy day on capitol hill. we'll talk about the benghazi

hearings next. but first, a look at colleagues and the public pay their final respect today to world war ii veteran and democratic senator daniel inouye of hawaii. his body is lying in state today in the capitol rotunda. this , a regular guy with an irregular heartbeat. the usual, bob? not today. [ male announcer ] bob has afib: atrial fibrillation not caused by a heart valve problem, a condition that puts him at greater risk for a stroke. [ gps ] turn left. i don't think so. [ male announcer ] for years, bob took warfarin, and made a monthly trip to the clinic to get his blood tested. but not anymore. bob's doctor recommended a different option: once-a-day xarelto®. xarelto® is the first and only

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there is one part of it that i'm -- i don't want to say concerned but puzzled by, and

that's it places a lot of blame on 0 lower level officials and why i find that quite puzzling is because benghazi and libya is not a remote outpost. so understand who washington is. >> someone in the white house changed the talking points from general petraeus and the cia before they were given to ambassador rice. someone changed them. do either one of you guys know? do you care? >> the responsible officials at the state department overlooked mounting evidence that the security situation in benghazi was deteriorating. >> tough questions on the hill today in senate and house hearings on the benghazi attack, coming on the heels of the report found there to be quote grossly insufficient security. today hillary clinton's top deputies admits mistakes were made and warning signs were

missed. >> we did not do a good enough job as reports highlight in connecting the dots in the troubling pattern even in the absence -- >> okay. >> prevsiding, senator john kery presumed to be the next secretary state said it wasn't just the state department's fault. >> i want to be chrissal clear about something else. congress also bears some responsibility here. congress has the power of the purse. adequately funding america's foreign policy objectives is not spending. it is investing. >> for all the talk of changes needed and lessons learned, the next guest says neither the report or the hearings likely to improve security, that's a strong statement from former assistant secretary of state p.j. crowly. thank you for stopping by. i guess if i could get you to start by explaining that point. we have a report, a lot of

recommendations in here. why are you so pessimistic about it changing anything? >> well, i would draw first a contrast between the state department budget give or take $50 billion, a lot of money. the state department budget $500 billion to $600 billion. ten times, 11 times as much. you know, when budgets go to the hill, senators and congressmen look at the defense budget and go, what can we add to that? when the foreign affairs budget goes to the hill, because there's not the same kind of political constituent sy, they go, what can we subtract from that? i think there will be some effort to improve diplomatic security. some addition of personnel but the real question is, how long will that last? we had a tragedy a dozen years ago where two embassies were bombed by al qaeda in 1998. there was a commitment at that time that there would be an aggressive rebuilding of embassies to build in more

security. the target was ten embassies a year to be rebuilt and it was something more like three. you know, i just question whether there will be the consistent political will over time to invest more significantly as senator kerry said to the extent of military affairs. >> i guess the other issue and you wrote about it here is expeditionary diplomacy. the risk of diplomats is more than maybe it used to be. i guess a broader issue raised by this is what is the acceptable, when's the level of risk to sort of as a country be willing to accept for our diplomats in conflict zones like benghazi? >> well, sure. i think that is where mistakes were made as i think, you know, deputy secretary tom knide said today. when the military goes to war, they bring with them what they

need to protect the troops. when diplomats are deployed, the first level of security by the host nation. i think if there was a misjudgment here, it was underestimating not only, you know, the risk in benghazi but overestimating the ability of the libyan government, a very new government to provide the basic level of security for the diplomats in a city like benghazi and a mismatch together with as your clip said, not reading properly the warning signs evolving over the summer of 2012. that combination created the circumstances where there was simply not enough security on the ground when this group attacked. >> mr. crowly, you have been high up in the state department, three straightforward questions. at what levels do you think the decisions took place, the decisions criticized in the report, the people who have been dismissed, do you think that is the appropriate level at the state department to assess blame and responsibility, are they covering up for somebody higher,

and why would a request for security be denied? >> well, to the latter question, latter point first, there's simply not the level of resources to be able to fully fund an evolving mission that was not preplanned. benghazi and the return to the embassy, that's something that came up in the course of the year and as the report indicates, the state department put resources in to that challenge but on a temporary rotating aspect. in other words, they were robbing peter to pay paul and that kind of circumstance, there was not an adequate level of security. you know, look. bad things happen around the world. when, for example, to use a corollary, when we suffered the tragedy of abu ghraib, we recognized that the failures were at a lower level of command. i think the same thing happened

here. the secretary of the state is responsible. she was the one who made the decision to reopen diplomatic relations with libya. she was not necessarily the one to carry out a particular security plan in benghazi. as tom pickering who headed this review board indicated, where the rubber hits the road is at the assistant secretary level. there's two bureaus, in the judgment of the committee, failed to do what needed to be done and those four individuals have been held responsible. >> p.j. i got to say your column bummed me out today and confused me a little. a few months ago it was asked of a state department official that resigned if the problems of ben zba ga zi were an issue of funding and she said, absolutely not. to that, also, on the day of the attack, following the attack, hillary clinton dispatched dozens of other additional security personnel to high

threat outposts around the world. essentially, and seemingly, with the switch of a -- the flick of a switch. and further, if it's just a funding issue, how could with all of the attacks and threats that the smc had been dealing with throughout all of 2012, including an ied attack in june, how could all of those threats not add up to a response of, we need additional security? we're not asking for paper clips here. we are asking for security. >> well, these kind of situations, you never have -- you never have all of the threat information that you'd like to have so i think, you know, there was not an indication that said, you know, this group is planning to attack a week from tuesday. >> no, it wasn't warning intelligence. you're right. it was not warning intelligence and the report makes that very clear. you're right. but there had been dozens of threats and humanitarian assets in benghazi and to the smc.

i have a whole list of them. >> oh, sure. no. understand that when a country makes a decision to withdraw its citizens and its diplomats from a country, that has enormous political implications. the rurian government is contemplating to pull out of damascus. if russia does that, it basically communicates that russia no longer has confidence in the assad regime. >> right. >> same thing with the united states. we opened diplomatic negotiations and when you are confronted with that decision, does the situation become so dangerous that you withdraw? you're sending a signal you no longer have confidence that a government can properly protect its people and this is the recalculation that's going to have to be done. you know? we are going to find our diplomats in these kind of challenging situations but what will happen in these high threat areas is we'll recognize and we can no longer rely first and

foremost on the host nation government but to bring more marines, more diplomatic security in to the situations so that we provide a basic level of protection for our diplomats in these troubling post-conflict zones. >> p.j. quickly switching gears, chuck hagel is widely rumored to be the next pick of secretary of defense, coming under attack of fellow republicans on his record on foreign affairs. what is the truth here? >> i don't know what decision the president's going to make. he's got multiple and strong candidates, chuck hagel i think would be an excellent choice. so would michelle florono and will be secretary of defense some day. i have confidence that senator hagel, a great respect on the hill, a reservoir of support in both parties. he will be confirmed if nominated. >> all right. p.j. crowley, thank you very much. coming up, the nra set to

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it's become sadly routine in the small town of newtown, connecticut, where more funerals and memorials are taking place today, including those for 6-year-olds katherine lub bard, benjamin wheeler, jesse lewis, allison way yacht and grace mcdon knell. in washington this afternoon, vice president biden met with law enforcement officers as part of the new gun task force announced by president obama yesterday. >> the president is absolutely committed to keeping his promise that we will act and we'll act in a way that is designed even if he says we could only save one life, we have to take action. >> and tomorrow morning, one

week after the elementary school shooting, the national rifle association, nra, will speak publicly for the first time since the tragedy. powerful gun lobby has long fought any effort to curb gun ownership but this week they promise to offer meaningful contributions to make sure that the tragedy never happens again and what do we think that looks like? let's put it through the spin cycle. i guess to start with the overall lay of the land i i applaud the president for the task force. i think joe biden is a good pick to head it up. frankly, though, i'm not particularly optimistic of action at the federal level particularly because the calendar is against them. there's a time period before there are recommendations issued and a while before activists can sort of coales around the proposals. right now support or stricter gun control at ten-year highs. abc news found 54% support.

cbs found 57% support. that drops over time and i don't know by the time that the panel issues recommendations and there's legislation in place that there's really going to be the same energy behind it. but to the point about the nra, i think tomorrow they're going to try to be conciliatory and vague and throw a bone on the table toward some legislation they would support but we should be realistic here. the nra is not going to move to the center on this issue. they're there to represent a pure ideology just like other interest groups are and if we want to affect change through the nra we shouldn't be expecting them to move to the middle. instead, we should be doing things to encourage a decline in membership, to undermine their power to make the endorsement of the nra less of a stamp of approval and a positive in an election and more of a negative. >> i mean, that's absolutely right. we have to remember gnat nra does not really owners but

manufacturers. they won't do anything to hurt the business, the billion-dollar business they represent. i would love it if they understand that gun safety is good for the business in the long run. but then, even as we say that, these moments appear to be bad for the nra and run and hide but nra membership booms in these moments. gun sales boom in these moments. bushmaster sales are booming in the wake of the gabby giffords shooting, glocks boomed. they would never admit it but in a perverse way, the moments are good for them so then how do we expect them to not want the moments? >> that's a terrible thing to say. the nra does not want these moments and invests millions a year in gun safety. i can think of a piece of legislation in 2007, the nixon improvement act to incentive states to report of people to be

mentally disabled or a danger to themselves or others or suicidal. in to a national database. that was legislation written by the nra. passed by george w. bush. i would expect to see more efforts along those lines. around mental health. i know because i know the nra that they're interested in having a conversation. but they want to talk about what works. and unfortunately, calling a school a gun-free zone and slapping a sticker on it is an immoshl lack of attention to the issue of school security. that is leaving our schools wide open. so i expect them to look at sort of mental health issues. mine, they don't want mentally disabled people to have their hands on any guns. not just some guns. >> they have fought for the mentally disabled to have guns. they do want that. >> the nix improvement act makes it harder for disabled people -- >> they have fought for this. >> that is just not true.

>> completely true. >> i would expect to see a two-pronged approach. more on school safety and more tightening on mental health kinds of policy issues. >> we talk about the power of the nra and i think it's worth kind of revisiting the history of this. there's three legislative victories. 1968, a ban on mail-order guns. the brady bill. they got the assault weapons ban. there are two things to note about the legislative victim achieved when democrats had unified control of the government. white house and both branches of congress. the brady bill's a good example of this. jim brady was snot 1981. it took from 1981 until november of 1993 for that bill to get a vote in congress and a signature of the president. you have republicans in the white house blocking it. so there's that piece of it. that's the situation you sort of need. democrats need the power and

having that power and with that, you have so many democrats. this was true then and now and basically pro-gun, rural democrats of rural gun-owning stating and will oppose it, water it down. banning mail-order guns, good thing? yes. brady bill, five-day background check. good thing but not a huge thing that really changed a lot so i say even right now when we have republicans running the house but even in this climate, i think it's so watered down and probably not going to do much. >> all right. depressing there. straight ahead, patriotic shopping. i'm in. gifts that give back and create jobs. next on "the cycle." new prilosec otc wildberry

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attention holiday shoppers. with four more days to christmas eve, if you're not done, you're not alone. two thirds of americans haven't fin initialled their shopping.

14% haven't started yet, toure. for me, i passed out the holiday gifts this morning at the offices. gifts for family, that's a different story. the national retail federation expects holiday spending this year upwards of $580 billion, up 4% from last year, good news. next guest is issuing a challenge. use all that hard-earned cash for gifts made in america because if every american spent $674 on something made in america this season, we could create 200,000 jobs. talk about a gift that keeps on giving. with us is founder of keep america.com, his website has a host of items and venders with products made in america. i also read if we all bought everything made american on the entire christmas shopping list this year we would create 2 million jobs. why isn't that the sort of jobs plan that we're all talking

about? >> we have to start somewhere and you're absolutely right. you know, you break it down even simpler than that. $30 a month, if every american spent on american made products, a million jobs and listen. ideally, to spend the shopping list on american made goods would be a perfect world. even half that, half that creates over a million dollars and we have to focus not only in the holiday season but all year around. i fully agree with you. we have to reinvest as any good company would. >> david, i visited a great company based in ohio, manufacturing, still done in china. may make beautiful products. they are a private company, family owned mostly that's made a company wide decision that their priority is on keeping jobs in the ohio river valley and placed it above profit. it would be more profitable for them likely to move their manufacturing to china or elsewhere. that's not going to be

realistic. most companies won't make that the priority. are consumers ready now to pay a premium to buy made in america goods? >> look. i commend them for doing that. i have to tell you, wages in china are rising. i spoke to somebody recently building a hotel and looking at the numbers, prices really aren't much different with thing that is are being imported now and made here in the united states. prices are going up tremendously. now that a lot of attention is brought to, you know, the terrible conditions and working environments and the terrible wages in china. and look. we have to start just reinvesting ourselves and you could buy things made in china that last you not that long that are not safe. there's nothing better than american quality, the safety principles we focus on in this country and american made lasts you the longest and do amazing things for this country. >> you know, david, i get that.

i'd love to sit here and tell you with holiday presents i'm a ko conscientious shopper. i try to break my record. >> what is your record? >> two hours. a lot of thought in these gifts. really, seriously. my point is this. look, if i walk in to a store and going to get, you know, a pad of paper for -- that's a bad example. not a good gift. but walking in to a store, i'm happy to buy american and pay extra. i'm happy all things equal but i'm lazy. what can be done for the average lazy consumer like me to make it easy to buy american? >> write to our site. keep america.com. get your shopping done. 20 minutes. we have a page on our site where everything is marked down to $64. mostly things above $100 retail. it's a magic number to create

jobs. every american spending $64 in the holidays, it's 200,000 jobs collectively. whether it's products to get to you before christmas, whether it's buying gift cards which are a phenomenal gift from our site because not only actually giving something with meaning, of an american made product, but you're actually directly responsible for creating jobs here in the united states. >> do you sell pads of paper? >> yes. >> that's a dynamite gift. >> no pads of paper available. we'll look for you. >> too bad. >> forget it then. >> i know it's going to be in the kornacki family stockings. pads of paper. david, thank you so much and in keeping with the patriotic mood, america's getting some international love today. american 0 livian culpo is new miss universe. she was kround last night. a boston university sophomore and beat out 88 competitors for the coveted title. something the u.s. hasn't done in 15 years and a rhode islander. what do you think she was saying

after being crowned? the facebook friend james schumacher suggested this. just my luck. the mayans say my reign will only last one day. downer. post your response on facebook. up next, if you're still looking for that perfect gift, toure takes us behind the images of a beautiful new book. [ fishing rod casting line, marching band playing ]

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boxing is a sport of beauty and brutality where people float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. but how can it be both the sweet science and the hurt business? a sport of rhythm and bone crushing. for a look in to the fascinating dichotomies i went to gleason's gym in brooklyn to the talk to howard shotz whose new book "at the fights" takes us inside the unique world of professional boxing. >> boxers are different from any other athlete. they choose a profession where they're fighting somebody whose career is advanced by knocking them out. >> right. >> who would do that? where does this come from? what is this courage? what is this heart? >> interesting row of pictures

before and afters, right? because the promoters let you in and get the access. what do you see? >> you see initially in both of them, determination. fierceness. focus. and afterwards, wasted. or depressed if they lost. boxers are like other athletes in that in order to be a champion, you have to be trainable. if you're a great athlete but can't be coached, you're never going to make it. in ringside, when you're shooting boxing, after the boxer comes out, from in between rounds, he's very wet and the first 30 seconds when he gets hit, there's spray of water off the head. that's what we did in the studio. >> a photograph is still two dimensional and you're bringing this cinematic three dimensionality to it. >> you said it better than i could say it, actually. a photograph by the very nature like a piece of paper is flat,

still and silent. and i wanted to try to bring the sense of power and violence and speed and energy and dynamic life in to these images. i used all sort of photographic techniques. i through water at them and ink and salt and powder. i used a blur and motion. i used all sorts of things to say this is boxing. >> so you shoot sergio martinez and we see him jumping rope. >> yeah. >> and it seems like there's about 40 images compacted in one. >> i timed the jump rope, .3 seconds to go around. essentially there's 60 strobes going off and it sounds like this. 60 strobes going off and then one central strobe and able to depict the jumping of the rope in a still picture and you can

sort of feel it. >> your photograph of mike tyson is one of the greatest mike tyson photos i have ever seen. >> i did an interview first so he could tell in a half an hour that i was a good guy, he could trust me. they're creative beings. he did stuff for me. i encouraged him. great, great, do it. some were terrible and awful pictures and he did that scowl and it was like perfect. >> was he screaming? >> he went aaah! like that. i said let me have it again. >> you studied boxing for years before you started shooting. >> when i was fascinated with boxers after the athlete book and want to investigate it, the available to me that had been done before, both by photographs, painting, even images of sculpture. it's important to be a scholar of what you do. for me it was important to have a vast, wide visual data bank. i want to know what came before

because i don't want to do it again. i wanted to find a way to say this is boxing, this is violent and vulnerability. this is power and determination and humanity. >> there's a way you capture the brutality and beauty of boxing, and how do you merge those as a photographer? >> well, how do i? i don't know. i was really in touch with who they were as human beings. so i asked all of the boxers, what do you do when you get hit? they like getting hit. they like the taste of their blood. it turns them on. you know what they're really frightened about? their frightened of the shame of losing. the shame they bring upon themselves, their family, their fans. >> there's also a picture of you with no shirt on in the book with the champ. >> my wife made me include that. beverly made me include it.

vladimir, the great heavyweight champion from the ukraine, so when he came to the studio to be in the book, he didn't want to be left out, but he said to me, i'm not a bocker. i'm not taking boxing pictures. >> what do you mean i'm not a boxer? >> what do you mean is exactly right. i said what do you mean? >> he said just make a portrait of me. i said at least take your shirt off. he said i will take my shirt off if you take your shirt off and we'll make a picture and give me the row motor control so i can take a picture and in that picture he's standing there with his shirt off. i'm standing there with my shirt off and he's taking the picture. >> thanks to howard for spending time with us. his book is out now.

i bought zero gifts for christmas. can i get it all done on saturday? panicking a little. for a behind the scenes look at the interview you just saw, head over to our website or facebook where our producers tracy and nick give you the full 12-round experience of being in gleeson's gym. up next, krystal says what? dems are better off holding hands and jumping off the fiscal cliff rather than taking boehner's deal in that sounds skrary. male announcer ] break from the holiday stress. ship fedex express by december 22nd for christmas delivery.

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does november 6th feel like a lifetime away from you? you remember november 6th, that was the day the president won 332 electoral votes, besting

mitt romney in every single swing state save for north carolina on a message of raising taxes on people making more than $250,000 per year and protecting social security and medicare from the republican ax. it wasn't a particularly grand agenda, but there was something satisfying about how eminently achievable and measurable it was. and, lord, was it better than what the other people were offering. help me out. how did we get from there to staring down a terrible deal on the fiscal freakout? a deal proffered by the president that caves on taxes and cuts social security benefits and eliminates payroll tax relief and locks in highly favorable capital gains rates for mitt romney and his buddies? a deal that once again involves selling out the poor, the elderly, and the middle class so the rich in this country can be spared sharing even a tiny slice of the pain. let me walk you through the

steps. maybe i missed something. so the president has sky high approval ratings and congressional republicans are still hanging on at like 12% approval. all right. american people backed democratic priorities regarding taxes and entitlements by overwhelming margins, and they're set to blame republicans for the fiscal fiasco going south. whatever happened to democrats are holding all the cards in this negotiation and republicans from ann coulter to rush limbaugh to tom cole admitting defeat and wanting just to move on? for that matter whatever happened to jobs and the plight of the middle class as the top issue s to focus on? all i can figure is that all of this surveying of the playing field forgot one important thing. the president has always wanted to be a post partisan, bipartisan figure. he's tried at every turn to work with republicans, even adopting a top republican's health care plan as his own. but he's living in a time where bipartisan is simply impossible. see exhibit a from yesterday and

b from summer of 2011. in both exhibits john boehner blew up negotiations in which republicans gave up a plum deal because nothing could ever be pure enough or far enough for them. you can't negotiate in good faith with people who do not and never will return the favor. >> and i hope that the president will get serious soon about providing and working with us on a balanced approach. >> much has been made of the need for a, quote, balanced deal, and usually that refers to the balance of cuts to revenue, but here is the balance i want to see. for once the rich being asked to sacrifice as much as the poor and the middle class. truly more should be asked since they have benefited from loopholes and largess for so long that i won't be greedy here. i would be happy for a balance. democrats should not accept this deal or any that does not meet this test of balance. i would rather hold hands and jump off the c